Catharine Bevan

At New Castle, Catharine Bevan is ordered to be burned alive, 
for the murder of her husband; and Peter Murphy, the servant who 
assisted her, to be hanged. It was designed to strangle her dead 
by the previous hanging over the fire and before it could reach her;
but the fire "broke out in a stream directly on the rope round her 
neck, and burnt off instantly, so that she fell alive into the flames, 
and was seen to struggle therein!" A shocking spectacle for our country!

http://www.csm.uwe.ac.uk/~rstephen/livingeaston/local_history/Penn/Penn_family_part_1.html

http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/pa/philadelphia/areahistory/watson0111.txt